Study Guide

Study guideMargaret Fuller, “The Great Lawsuit,” pp. 736-747: Study Guide/Discussion Forum questions
F 10/12: No classes: faculty/staff meetings. Read: Fuller, intro (736-39), and “The Great Lawsuit” (739-747). Write: response to questions on Angel Discussion Forum #2 [questions below on this sheet, too]. Original post (your own response) due: 4 p.m. Second post (response to a classmate’s points) due 8 a.m. Monday. Discussion forum is instead of SRQ for Friday; we will meet in class on Monday to discuss it.
M 10/15: In class: wrap-up of Fuller; beginning Thoreau. Read: Henry David Thoreau, intro (825-29) and “Resistance to Civil Government” (a.k.a. “Civil Disobedience,” 829-44). Please complete your response on the Fuller discussion forum by 8 a.m. and also write an SRQ on Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” essay. Use the note-taking guide to help with Thoreau’s essay.
Questions on Fuller:
First, a caution: Fuller uses names of many people who were famous in her day to illustrate her ideas. Don’t worry if you have no idea who these people are. The footnotes in the text are helpful, but the main thing to do is see what Fuller finds admirable (or not so admirable) about the people she mentions. Look at the values she seems to want readers to focus on.
For the discussion forum, focus on question #1; if you want to discuss questions 2 and 3 in addition, great, but not required. We’ll discuss them in class on Monday.
Question #1: On pages 739-44, Fuller describes “four different kinds of equality” within marriage. The ways husbands and wives relate to each other in each type of marriage she discusses seem quite different. Which type of marriage do you think Fuller prizes most highly, and why?
To help with this question, consider: do you think Fuller puts down or values the “household partnership” (739)? Why? What does she mean when she...